UCLA Historical Journal

UCLA UCLA Historical Journal Title "May They Not Be Fornicators Equal to These Priests": Postconquest Yucatec Maya Sexual Attitudes Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9wm6k90j Journal UCLA Historical Journal, 12(0) ISSN 0276-864X Authors Restall, Matthew Sigal, Pete Publication Date 1992 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California "May They Not Be Fornicators Equal to These Priests": Postconquest Yucatec Maya Sexual Attitudes^ Matthew Restall and Pete Sigal ten cen ah hahal than cin iialic techex hebaxile a uohelex yoklal P^^ torres p^ Dias cabo de escuadra P^ granado sargento yetel p^ maldonado layoh la ma hahal caput sihil ma hahal confisar ma hahal estremacion ma hahal misa cu yalicobi maix tan u yemel hahal Dios ti lay ostia licil u yalicob misae tumenel tutuchci u cepob sansamal kin chenbel u chekic iieyob cu tuculicob he tu yahalcabe manal tuil u kabob licil u baxtic u ueyob he p^ torrese chenbel u pel kakas cisin Rita box cu baxtic y u moch kabi mai moch u cep ualelob ix >oc cantiil u mehenob ti lay box cisin la baixan p^ Diaz cabo de escuadra tu kaba u cumaleil antonia aluarado xbolonchen tan u lolomic u pel u cumale tiitan tulacal cah y p^ granado sargento humab akab tan u pechic u pel manuela pacheco hetun p^ maldonadoe tun>oc u lahchekic u mektanilobe uay cutalel u chucbes u cheke yohel tulacal cah ti cutalel u ah semana uinic y xchup ti pencuyute utial yoch pelil p^ maldonado xpab gomes u kabah chenbel Padresob ian u sipitolal u penob matan u than yoklalob uaca u ment utzil 92 Indigenous Writing in the Spanish Indies mageuale tusebal helelac ium cura u >aic u tzucte hetun lae tutac u kabob yetel pel lay yaxcacbachob tumen u pen cech penob la caxuob yal misa bailo u yoli Dios ca oc inglesob uaye ix ma aci ah penob u padreilobi hetun layob lae tei hunima u topob u yit uinicobe yoli Dios ca haiac kak tu pol cepob amen ten yumil ah hahal than. 1, the informer of the truth, tell you what you should know about Father Torres, Father Diaz, squad corporal. Father Granado, sargeant, and Father Maldonado: They say false baptism, false confession, false last rites, false mass; nor does the true God descend in the host when they say mass, because they have stiff penises. Every day all they think of is intercourse with their mistresses. In the morning their hands smell bad from playing with their mistresses. Father Torres, he only plays with the vagina of that really ugly black devil Rita. He whose hand is disabled does not have a disabled penis; it is said he has up to four children by this black devil. Likewise Father Diaz, squad corporal, has a woman from Bolonchen called Antonia Alvarado, whose vagina he repeatedly pokes before the whole cah, and Father Granado bruises Manuela Pacheco's vagina all night. Father Maldonado has just finished fornicating with everyone in his jurisdic- tion, and has now come here to carry out his fornication. The whole cah knows this. When Father Maldonado makes his weekly visit, a woman of Pencuyut named Fabiana Gomez provides him with her vagina. Only the priests are allowed to fornicate without so much as a word about it. If a good macehual does that, the priest always punishes him immediately. But look at the priests' excessive fornication, putting their hands on these whores' vaginas, even saying mass like this. God willing, when the English come may they not be fornicators equal to these priests, who only lack carnal acts with men's bottoms. God willing that smallpox be rubbed into their penis heads. Amen. I, father, the informer of the truth.3 Maya Sexual Attitudes 93 Postconquest Maya Documentation It is not surprising that the explicit and unambiguous language of the above petition, submitted in Yucatec Maya to the Spanish authorities in 1774 and eventually ending up in the files of the Holy Office in Mexico City, shocked the Inquisition official whose task it was to translate the document into Spanish. He was, it seems, so offended that he added his own opinion to the translation, condemning the allegations of the petitioner as "scathing, au- dacious," and "grossly excessive," especially in view of the fact that the clergy treated the natives with "respect and veneration." Certainly this document could be looked at from the perspec- tive of a concern for veracity, or an interest in Maya-clergy relations. Taking these viewpoints, one might investigate the nature and extent of complaints against clergy in Spanish America as a whole; or, more specifically, the petition might productively be placed in the analytical context of the series of petitions drawn up by Maya municipal councils (cabildos) throughout the colonial pe- riod accusing parish priests of violence, sexual misconduct, and malpractice. However, the study of such petitions tells us less about the quality of priests in Yucatan (for example), less about the acceptance of the Church and of Christian values by the Maya, and more about the skill with which the Maya (like the Nahuas) exploited the insecurities and preoccupations of Church officials while working the Spanish legal system to their advantage."* In the end, we cannot ignore the fact that a document such as this petition of 1774 was authored by the Maya in their own language. Whereas not so long ago the Spanish translation of such a document would have been treated as a source for the study of relations between clergy and Indians in a colonial province, today we must take the opportunity to use native language material to pene- trate aspects of indigenous culture after the Conquest. This chapter therefore places the above petition in the context of other Maya- language colonial-era notarial material dealing directly or indirectly with indigenous sexuality. The broader context of the study is the full body of postconquest Maya documentation, whose genres and constructive features are discussed in Chapter 2 of this volume. Suffice to remark here that within a generation after the conquest of Yucatan (1542), the Maya elite had adapted a pre-existing writing tradition and begun writing their own language in the Roman alphabet, producing notarial documentation for local, ecclesiastical, and legal purposes— usually within Spanish genre formats such as testaments and bills 94 Indigenous Writing in the Spanish Indies /ft.//^*-./^/ /,<'c/'Â« •it'Â*^j^*Îôa^f-c Ac.^*j-AJtr4Jtj,^^-0e'-^'''<»'f^^^*T'^*'^'^/''i^ '^^> -- ^'-- ii:i« V ' ^- fe#?5iriii mini « ii ^ — B^H^r- Figure 1: anonymous 1774 petition against four priests. Maya Sexual Attitudes 95 of sale. This tradition soon settled on a single key official in the Maya cabildo, the escribano (notary). The irony of postconquest Maya literacy is that it enabled native cabildos to advance their interests in the Spanish courts even at the expense of individual Spaniards. Furthermore, Franciscan friars initially taught the Maya alphabetic writing, ironically giving the Maya a weapon with which to attack the clergy—as in the 1774 petition. Notarial documents, particularly petitions and testaments, can often speak somewhat indirectly to a study of sexual norms. Pe- titions may relate sexual misconduct. They more often talk about crimes against the community, excessive tribute demands, and Spanish social and economic norms, but even these complaints can have indirect sexual import, showing the processes of social change within the community. Testaments always relate to a discussion of kinship, and they also often demarcate the process of social change. Within Maya society, the kinship structure relates directly to sexuality as this structure establishes who is and who is not an appropriate sexual partner. We shall refer below to testaments in general and make specific use of the 1774 petition as well as two additional Maya petitions of the 1580s. In addition to the escribano, a native church official, the mae- stro, seems often to have been literate himself; either he or the notary were also responsible for the writing of unofficial documents intended solely for local consumption. Such sources are concerned not with the detailed business of daily life but with broad statements of ideology; they include, in particular, historical texts, fables, and codices. The Maya used these documents to state their own understandings of the world and, therefore, to set norms for society. The examples used in this chapter are the Books of Chilam Balam from Chumayel and Tizimin. The purpose of this study is to form a picture of Maya sexual attitudes by examining both official and unofficial Maya notarial documents. In looking at the 1774 petition above we are concerned with the following questions: Is this document a deviant genre? How do its references to sexual activity differ from such references in other Maya notarial sources? Does the document reflect Maya sexual attitudes revealed directly or indirectly in unofficial material? What do these attitudes tell us about how the Maya used sexuality, and what role did sexuality play in power relations within Maya communities and between Maya and non-Maya peo- ple? 96 Indigenous Writing in the Spanish Indies Sexual Theory Information on postconquest Maya sexuality (by which is meant sexual characteristics and activities beyond the sphere of gender roles) is sparse. If sexuality is a subject with which Latin American scholars have had little experience, the topic has only partially been undressed with respect to indigenous peoples and remains an undoubted virgin in the case of the Yucatan. Scholars have often shied away from talking about sexuality, even within a Western context.

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